The Association for University and College Counseling recently revealed an average of 108 students per counseling clinician, while UW-Eau Claire has about 160 students per clinician, Riley McGrath, the director of Counseling Services, said.

McGrath addressed the concern of lack of access to counseling on campus and the improvements the office has made at Monday’s Student Senate meeting. 

Counseling Services currently has ten full-time clinicians and two part-time clinicians, with positions ranging from counselors to case managers. 25 percent of the staff comes from a diverse ethnic background as well. 

“I’m very proud of how hard (the Counseling Services staff) work to get people in and to move their schedules around to accommodate as much as they can,” said McGrath. “I know we’re not perfect, but we’re getting more students in every year.”

The office’s usual hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, but they now stay open until 6 p.m.  on Wednesdays for students who cannot make it during business hours. They also hope to have crisis numbers printed on student IDs in the future. 

In addition to the discussion of counseling services. The UW-Eau Claire dance team made a request for $6,000 for general expenses. Due to issues with the prior executive board, the request was decreased, according to the University Activities Commision. The team also said they predict that they won’t make as much money from fundraising this year because of their day being moved from a Saturday to a Sunday. The Senate denied the request in a 0-28-2 vote. They cited the main reason it was denied was because of the amount of money requested as well as uncertainty of whether or not the dance team will make enough money from their fundraiser. 

Armagost can be reached at [email protected]